Today Texas Children’s Hospital physicians are celebrating successful completion of a life saving procedure for a condition seldom seen.

Surgeon-in-Chief, Dr. Charles D. Fraser, Jr. offers the details:

Ectopia cordis is a rare condition where a baby’s heart is located either partially or totally outside the chest. Only 8 out of 1 million babies are born with ectopia cordis, and 90% of these babies are either stillborn or die within the first 3 days of life.

Today, physicians at Texas Children’s Hospital are I happy to share that Audrina Cardenes, who was born with this very rare diagnosis has defied the odds and is doing very well. She is now 5 weeks old after receiving lifesaving heart surgery at Texas Children’s Heart Center when she was born.

Audrina’s condition was initially discovered during an ultrasound 16 weeks into her mother’s pregnancy. Her mom was given 3 options: to terminate the pregnancy, opt for comfort care, or elect to have her baby undergo an extremely risky surgery after birth. Texas Children’s Fetal Center from her home in Midland, Texas.

She chose surgery and was referred to This risky operation on such an uncommon condition required specialists from a variety of care teams including cardiovascular surgery, plastic surgery, general surgery and others. But here at Texas Children’s Hospital we have the full spectrum of medical specialists to give patients like Audrina the best chance at making it. If Audrina and her mother hadn’t been referred to a facility like ours, she wouldn’t be here today.(Read more at TCH Blog)